


Remainder

by MMXIII



Series: Fragment dump [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: :D, Steve Rogers as the Winter Soldier, two winter soldiers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:17:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MMXIII/pseuds/MMXIII
Summary: The asset knows the Captain is an impressive man; fast, strong. Stronger than him, maybe. But in his dreams the Captain is sallow-faced and fierce, small enough to tuck under his arm.





	

It occurs to the asset while they’re out on a mission, air so cold that the ice is creeping up the buildings, that their teeth start to crack in their mouths.  
They’re like dogs. 

Waiting to be let out. Waiting to be fed. To please, to roll over and beg.

Or maybe it’s just him; the Captain doesn’t beg. At least not that he’s ever seen.

They reach the desired location with one hour and seventeen minutes to spare. They sit shoulder to shoulder under the row of cracked windows. A joint mission is unusual, and this is simple: one shot, one kill. There’s no discernable reason for them both to be here. It must be a test, the asset thinks, it’s always a goddamn test.   
If they don’t speak they might not get the chair so they sit in silence until the time comes. Sometimes the Captain puts a hand on the asset’s head, his shoulder, the vulnerable skin at his nape, says ‘alright’, ‘let’s go’. And the asset finds himself thinking about dogs. Seems an apt metaphor.

*

Its been a long time, he thinks. Its hard to tell because the faces keep changing, but then so do the clothes, an indelible indication of time passing. He doesn’t think he’s seen his own face in a long time, but he remembers different variations of the Captain’s: long hair, short hair, clean-shaven, unshaven. The asset knows the Captain is an impressive man; fast, strong. Stronger than him, maybe. But in his dreams the Captain is sallow-faced and fierce, small enough to tuck under his arm, frail, covered in blood.

*

When they rest, it is the Captain who curls around the asset, who snarls when they are disturbed.

*

They wash each other because the technicians are afraid. The Captain is fastidious, always tending to the asset before himself. He bathes the asset’s face carefully, the same way he does everything; he bathes the asset’s face without efficiency: a deviation from normal behaviour. Despite this he doesn’t linger anywhere in particular for too long because they are always watching, because their bodies are not their own. When the water is warm The Captain washes the asset’s hair and frowns at the blood welling between their toes. Sometimes it feels like an old ritual turned inside-out. 

Sometimes the asset thinks he remembers.


End file.
